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Reviews - Anuryzm - Worm's Eye View

Review Date: 2012-03-14

Reviewed By: Fred Bteich

Review:

Born in Lebanon in 2003, its founder John Bakhos suffering for many years before finalizing its line-up, the Progressive UAE-based Metal band ANURYZM finally released its debut album "Worm's Eye View" in 2011, consisting of 8 tracks spinning for just under an hour.

If you're here to ask "Who is ANURYZM?" and still be unable to get an answer once you finish reading this review, then I can sadly tell you that you're not a true Metal fan, cause this band has set high standards with this release and answered all the critics concerning bands on the local scene unable to deliver good music.

Here's my track-by-track review of "Worm's Eye View".

Fragmenting The Soul:Perhaps it could be said this is the best track to start the opus with, blending the instruments altogether with the vocals, showing the band is eager to make a statement right from the start, exposing all the talents they have.

Wide Awake:The biggest highlights of this song are the change in vocals between the high and low notes and the fast tempo of the bass solos.

Sintax Of Trinity:Now we're really talking progressive. The heaviest track so far, with the beat's intensity continuously growing, setting it up perfectly for the grunts to kick in, powerful and well-poised, only to be joined a couple of minutes later by the energetic softer vocals, making it a memorable scene. The adrenaline reaches its pinnacle midway through, forcing the band to calm down a bit and take a minute to catch their breaths, with a soft appeasing guitar solo, only to return the way they had left. Undoubtedly, the best song of the opus.

Skygazing:You can hear pretty much everything on this track. An Anathema-like start, followed by an Opeth-like mood in the middle only for it to end in a Blind Guardian-like vocals performance.

Worm's Eye View:Such a clever start of the eponymous track of the album, with a "Call Of Duty"-like scene during which a politician figure is delivering a speech while whispers could be heard from a distance; a communication between a sniper and his boss telling him to take position before he shoots the target. Chaos reigns, the crowd goes wild and the song kicks in with an angry drums-filled beat, with a prominent bass and a good combination between the grunts and the acute vocals. The track ends with another speech delivered during which people are asked to rebel by putting their heads outside the windows and yelling that they can't take this anymore.

Killing Time:An average performance is delivered in the beginning, but the track ends on a high note with all the elements combined again, and the grunts coming back.

Breaking The Ballot:Breaking glass, resounding sirens and babies' cries in the background converge towards making a dramatic entrance for this track, before the real music emerges in a classy polished performance all the way.

Where Mockery Falls:A mixture of guitars, drums and bass kick in a depressive atmosphere before the vocals add to the scene with sad lyrics, very reminiscent of "Death Whispered A Lullaby" by the Death/Progressive Metal band Opeth. The same pattern continues for a couple of minutes and is then interrupted by a very decent bass solo, followed by some whispers in the background. Silence sets in for a couple of seconds, before the song peaks again, bombastic with the grunts added to the soft vocals and the progressive riffs. Right after, guitars take the lead and just when we think we're back to the same ambiance as the start of the track, the beat reaches its heaviest and fastest progressive state only for it to end with the guitars slowly fading away.

Spinning this album over and over again, I desperately tried to mark a track as "weak", but sincerely failed to do so. I was amazed by the variety this band has, and most importantly the fact that their play is very organized, never chaotic unlike many other bands from the region trying to bring everything together on each and every track. The clever switches made on tracks you thought were average first, will make you immediately change you mind and the vocals for me were some of the best I've heard around here; grunts were not bad at all but most of all the softer vocals delivered by Nadeem Bibby had so much variety, and I could easily classify this gifted voice between Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth and Hansi Kürsch of Blind Guardian. Music also seems to be pretty much influenced by Opeth and Anathema at many points, which is not surprising since renowned drummer Martin Lopez (Soen, Opeth, Amon Amarth) contributed to the album's success. Perhaps, one small thing that is missing in the script is a ballad or an instrumental track to make it complete.

"Worm's Eye View" is a very decent debut from this Progressive Metal band which has suffered huge blows during its career, and agonizingly managed to pull out an energetic opus, quite varied since it combines the influences of many countries the members come from, not to forget to mention the beautiful artwork a cherry to add, on top of the cake.